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Friday, November 2, 2012

"Saving an Endangered Species"

It’s not that I’ve done anything all that extraordinary or impossible. I haven’t set a world record, achieved the highest SAT score, or discovered a life-changing cure.

Rather, when I married this summer, I had not cohabited with my fiancé, had enjoyed a chaste dating and engagement time, and now, in marriage, am not using contraception.

The three C’s – chastity, cohabitation, contraception. The first we assume is a dinosaur of age’s past, and the second two we assume are the proud actions of everyone.I know that I’m not the only woman in the world – or even in the United States, Ohio, or Cincinnati – who has evaded the statistics of living with a boyfriend, popping the Pill, or jumpstarting a sexual relationship before vows are said. But to hear the world tell it, we’re an extinct breed. And to hear the political landscape today, these are the only things women want.

"Although I have lived through much darkness, under harsh totalitarian regimes, I have seen enough evidence to be unshakably convinced that no difficulty, no fear is so great that it can completely suffocate the hope that springs eternal in the hearts of the young. You are our hope, the young are our hope. [...] Do not let that hope die! Stake your lives on it! We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son." -- Pope John Paul II, World Youth Day 2002